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Main:2008 Beijing Olympic Games
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. China became the 22nd nation to host the Olympic Games and the 18th to hold a Summer Olympic Games. It was the third time that the Summer Olympic Games were held in Asia, after Tokyo, Japan, in 1964 and Seoul, South Korea, in 1988. The artistic gymnastics events were held at the Beijing National Indoor Stadium on August 9–19. Format of Competition The competition format was the same as the 2004 Summer Olympics. All participating gymnasts, including those who were not part of a team, participated in a qualification round. The results of this competition determined which teams and individuals participated in the remaining competitions, which included: *The team competition, in which the eight highest scoring teams from qualifications competed. Each team of six gymnasts could only have three gymnasts perform on each apparatus, and all three scores counted toward the team total. *The all-around competition, in which only the twenty-four highest scoring individuals in the all-around competed. Each country was limited to only two gymnasts in the all-around final. *The event finals, in which the eight highest scoring individuals on each apparatus competed. Each country was limited to two gymnasts in each apparatus final. This was also the first Olympics to use the new scoring system from the 2006 Code of Points. Competition Schedule Results Notable Moments *The Chinese women won the team gold medal for the first time in Olympic history. *USA's Nastia Liukin became the second straight American gymnast to win the all-around. Not only was she from the same country as her predecessor, Carly Patterson, but she was from the same gym as well. *Germany's Oksana Chusovitina competed in her fifth Olympics at age 33, and won the silver medal on vault. *The Russian women failed to clinch a team medal or, in fact, any individual medal in this competition. This was the first and, to date, the only Olympics since the breakup of the Soviet Union where the Russian women didn't medal at all. *The highest recorded score was a 16.900, by Nastia Liukin on uneven bars during the team final. Controversies *After Yang Yun, who competed with the Chinese team in Syndey, admitted to being fourteen during the Olympics, questions arose about the ages of the Chinese gymnasts, namely He Kexin, Deng Linlin, Yang Yilin, and Jiang Yuyuan. After an investigation and a verification of the gymnasts' passports, they were deemed age-eligible for the Olympic Games. *During the team final, the captains of both the Chinese and American teams (Cheng Fei and Alicia Sacramone, respectively) fell on balance beam. Sacramone then fell on floor exercise, which caused a lot of scrutiny by the fans who believed she cost the Americans the gold medal. However, certain gymnastics experts and former gymnasts have said that even if Sacramone hadn't fallen on beam and floor that the Americans would still only get a silver medal, as the Chinese start values on uneven bars were very high. *China's Cheng Fei, who was the favorite for the vault title in event finals, fell on her second vault (one that is actually named after her), but was still awarded the bronze medal over USA's Alicia Sacramone, who had two well-executed vaults. This was because Cheng's vaults had a higher level of difficulty than Sacramone's. This mirrored the results of the all-around at the 2006 World Championships, when Italy's Vanessa Ferrari won the gold medal after falling on balance beam. *During the uneven bars event final, China's He Kexin and USA's Nastia Liukin originally tied for the gold medal. However, a tie breaker was induced to determine a single gold medalist. The execution scores were broken down, and the gold was awarded to He Kexin. Medal Count